


Odin’s Heir

by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Odin's Bad Parenting, One Shot, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 12:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12681918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/pseuds/gaslightgallows
Summary: Odin has already failed one child. He cannot bear the thought of failing another.





	Odin’s Heir

**Author's Note:**

> Minor spoilers for _Thor: Ragnarok_. 
> 
> If you’re on Tumblr, please consider following me at [gaslightgallows.tumblr.com](http://gaslightgallows.tumblr.com) for more fic, reblogs about writing, and lots of randomness.

Odin Allfather was wise beyond his years and the realms he commanded, but even he could not fully explain why the tiny Jotunn infant he had taken from the temple had cloaked itself in the form of an Asgardian babe at the touch of his hands. Nor why, as the baby, whom he and Frigga had decided to call Loki, grew and thrived, the child should have the black hair and brilliant emerald eyes of his lost firstborn. His beautiful and terrible Hela. 

Perhaps it was the result of his own unconscious desires for a second chance, bleeding into hands wounded and magic tired after the battles on Midgard and in Jotunheim. He had by Frigga a fine son already, golden like her, a lusty bawling babe only a little older than Loki, born while Odin was away at war and kept secret from the people until his return. So close in age were the two infants, in fact, that their parents could pass them off as fraternal twins, born a day apart. 

There had to be a day, at least. There could be no doubt allowed in anyone's mind as to who would be Odin's true heir.

He feared, as his sons grew, that there would be rumors about Loki. He was a tall and gangly child who gave promise of growing into a tall, lean man, and his talents ran more to seidrcraft than to war, something Odin knew to be a trait of Jotunn princes. Few ever remembered that he and Thor were meant to be twins, even the boys themselves, so different were they in coloring and personality. But in spite of his cunning and his looks – or perhaps because of them – Loki was accepted as Odinsson without question. 

Though few now living remembered when his fearsome daughter rode by his side, portraits of Odin in his youth remained, paintings that showed him tall and lean and elegant, with hair as dark as a winter's night. It had lightened, in middle age, to brown, and then faded to silver, as no doubt people assumed Loki's would.

The boy liked black and green, as she had, but unlike his sister, it was not because the colours were an intimidating combination, but because he was as vain as a peacock and thought the scheme complimented his pale aristocratic skin, with gold to set off the eyes that could charm sweets from the cook, and later, a maiden into his bed, all without saying a word, though his words did him great credit. He was clever at his lessons, hungry for knowledge, and Odin had hoped he would be adept at statecraft. He loved riddles and illusions and twisting reality to suit his needs, and what was the art of negotiation but crafting illusions with words? Thor would calm and settle, in time, and be a good king, but he would never be a man of gentle speech. And Loki... although Odin had taken him from Laufey with the intent of perhaps someday putting him onto the throne of his birth, the truth was that Loki was not made for kingship. If Thor was too wild and hungry for battle, then Loki was too eager and thirsty for attention and adulation. For worship. 

Perhaps Laufey had seen it, too, in this tiny child of his getting and another's bearing, and that was why he had cast him out and not come looking for him. That Loki was no leader. He was drawn to women who could best him in combat and to men who could almost out-think him. He was a charmer, a conjurer, a fighter, but above all, he was a follower, reluctant and antagonistic, needing always to push and to claw and to challenge the one in authority. He might curse at being in Thor's shadow, but if he ever tried to leave it, or was forced out of it, he would be lost, too dazzled by the light of responsibility to find his way back. And so dazzled, he would become blind, and fall into darkness. 

And Odin Allfather, having failed a beloved child once by encouraging too much, could not bear the thought of making the same mistake again. His own love and pride in his adopted son frightened him, and in his fear, he kept himself aloof from Loki, lest fatherly indulgence led him down the same dark path it had led his elder sister.

So Odin made much of Thor, and left Loki to his mother's influences, trusting that her good heart and love would set him on a true path, never allowing himself to realize that Loki was as like him as he was like Hela and that Thor was as like Hela as he was like him, and that in avoiding one mistake, a man – even a king – may make a thousand more.


End file.
